SpaceX Joins Aerospace Elites to Test New Engines

Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX is upgrading its engines. A month after the company’s historic trip to the International Space Station, SpaceX says a new and improved version of its Merlin rocket engine has passed initial testing at its development facility in McGregor, Texas (video below).

And it’s turning out to be a rocket-engine-testing kind of week. Two other NASA-funded programs from Orbital Sciences and Boeing also tested new engines.

The Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Dragon space capsule into orbit last month is powered by nine Merlin engines. All of the Merlin engines use rocket-grade kerosene for fuel, and liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. The new model, the Merlin 1D, is the fifth version of the rocket engine designed and built in-house at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters.

The first Merlin engine was used on SpaceX’s early Falcon 1 flights. The Merlin 1B never made it on a flight and the original Merlin 1C also flew on early Falcon 1 flights. A version of the 1C called the Merlin Vacuum was announced in 2009 and is the engine that has powered the Falcon 9 flights up until now.

The new Merlin 1D was tested for a full 185-second burn, producing 147,000 pounds of thrust at sea level and considered a suitable simulation for a Falcon 9 launch. The upgraded engine produces a significant 55 percent more thrust than the existing engine and, according to SpaceX, still operates within the safety margins needed to eventually carry astronauts into orbit.

The first attempt at launching to the space station last month was aborted at the last second due to a faulty part, but the aborted launch was seen as a successful demonstration of SpaceX’s safety procedures.

SpaceX is one of two companies awarded a contract to deliver cargo for NASA, and the company is also in a NASA-funded competition to deliver a vehicle to shuttle astronauts to the ISS and elsewhere in low earth orbit.

The new Merlin 1D engines will power both the Falcon 9, providing the capability to deliver heavier loads into LEO, and the yet to be flown Falcon Heavy. The Falcon Heavy is a massive rocket built on a Falcon 9 with two additional boosters for a total of 27 engines. The rocket will be capable of heavy lifting to LEO, lunar trips or as SpaceX founder Elon Musk plans, trips to Mars.

The first mission for the new Merlin 1D engine is expected to launch next year.

Aerojet, the company making the engines for Orbital Science’s Antares rocket, tested its latest version of the AJ26 engine on Monday. The AJ26 is a derivative of a Russian design originally planned to send cosmonauts to the moon. Orbital Sciences is the other company besides SpaceX that has received funding and contracts from NASA to deliver cargo to the ISS.

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne thruster for the Boeing CST-100 spacecraft being tested in a high-altitude chamber. Photo: Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne

And in New Mexico, Boeing, along with partner Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, tested rocket thrusters for Boeing’s CST-100 space capsule. The CST-100 is being developed as part of NASA’s commercial crew program to send astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX is another company involved with the commercial crew development program.

The thrusters tested by Boeing will be used to control the CST-100 capsule in space as well as during re-entry. The CST-100 will have 24 of the Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne thrusters.

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